Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
I'll never forget the day when I discovered what a massive waste of time shoveling snow was. It had snowed all night and was going to snow all day. I must have been about 14 or 15. I had spent the morning shoveling snow and my great big reward would be a hot meal and then.... I get to shovel yet more snow all afternoon.
Seriously, fuck that.
I will never live in a place where it snows like that again. Ever.
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Your great big reward = being able to pull your car out of the driveway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilentKnight
Thankful to live in Canada where we don't get that much snow.
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Kidding aside, it's not really the snow or the storm itself, that are the problem. It's being used to and prepared for such conditions all the time.
A few years ago all of Europe was swept by some extreme cold and snow storms. Fuck, Athens had like foot-deep snow. 80% of the airports in Europe got shut down, due to weather conditions. There was full chaos in all airports, travelers being furious for not being able to get home, or back to their jobs on time.
Yet the Scandinavians were like WTF is wrong with you, you pussies? We got knee-deep snow in our airports all winter, but we don't close them down, it's business as usual for us. We have a nifty solution we use all the time. Get this, WE CLEAR THE FUCKING RUNWAYS!
About a month later the European Commission came out with strong criticism to the affected countries and the management of the airports, stating that being unprepared for such conditions was unacceptable. In fact they even issued regulations that the airports should always have means in place to deal with such conditions and always be prepared, during the colder months of the year.
I'm sure most Europeans will remember that one.
As an example about being prepared, I remember about 10 years ago I was flying from Budapest to Malmö in Sweden. The storm was brutal, much more so than the one that hit all of Europe a few years later, which I mentioned above. Ice and snow all over the place. My car literally got swept off the road due to the winds and the ice on the road.
But the airport was fully functional. Only the runways, while clear of snow, were full of fucking ice, kinda hard to scrape that off. I think they had strewed gravel all over them though. Anyway, as I said, the winds were brutal and during the landing the whole plane was shaking so hard it felt like it was gonna get torn apart. But the pilot had no problems landing it. Go figure...